Item 2A: Approval of City Council Minutes

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th She did not think ridership on that route could be compared to a route on West 11 Avenue. She asked if th additional lanes and left turns that crossed three rather than two lanes of traffic made travel on West 11 Avenue easier or safer. She said that undergrounding utilities would improve the appearance of the road and ease the way for pedestrians and bicycles, but because that was not covered by the grant so utilities instead would be moved. She did not think that was an improvement. She asked what kind of climate the council was trying to create for Eugene. She asked if 60-foot buses in a town of Eugene’s size was the answer. She said the council needed to create an atmosphere where people could live and work. Duncan Rhodes reported that a recent meeting of the Whiteaker Community Council, two women in attendance reported that they had been attacked on the bicycle path. As a result of the attack, one of the women dropped her plans to work at Valley River Center. Mr. Rhodes suggested that the City arrange for free self defense classes for women and that it install more lighting and emergency call boxes along the bicycle path. Kimberly Gladen , 361 West Broadway, #4, discussed conditions downtown. She thanked the council for creating free downtown parking. Ms. Gladen spoke to the amount of drug trafficking downtown. She reported that there were many teens partying late at night downtown, which both left a mess and attracted drug dealers. Ms. Gladen suggested that Eugene was a jumping off point for child pornography activity in Portland. She said part of the lure was the lawlessness that existed downtown, which she believed was out of control. Word about conditions went out on the Internet, attracting even more people to downtown. Ms. Gladen said downtown needed its police patrol back. She suggested that the City needed to invest equally in drug and alcohol rehabilitation, clean-up downtown, and policing. She urged the council and staff to visit downtown and view conditions there. th Bob Macherione , 288 West 6 Avenue, shared his copy of the West Eugene EmX alternatives analysis, which he likened it to a sales brochure aimed at a banking institute. He said that many of the numbers were unaudited and appeared to be pulled out of thin air. They were optimistic at best and intended to convince the federal government and City Council of the project’s merit. Nothing in the document spoke to how the system would be paid for. Mr. Macherione said most optimistic numbers indicated that instead of a trip costing $2.89, trips would cost $2.85, saving four cents. He did not think that was good enough to justify the impact the system would have. The alternatives analysis indicated that LTD planned to send a bus with th a capacity of 91 passengers down West 11 Avenue 87 times a day to pick up 900 passengers, for a total of 8.7 people per bus. th Pauline Hutson , 1025 Taylor Street, said the disaster that West 11 Avenue would become if the proposed thth route was chosen did not have to happen if LTD selected the 6 and 7 avenue alternative. That route required only a restructured lane and traveled to northwest Bethel, which was the only area in the communi- ty with the capacity to accommodate the large-scale housing and business development that was essential to th LTD’s long-term health. She saw no similar ridership opportunities on West 11 Avenue. Ms. Hutson did not oppose public transit, but she believed it needed to be in the right place. She opposed a system that required the destruction of homes and businesses. She asked the council to consider who it represented. She said it represented the working people who were having neighborhood bus services cut drastically to accommodate an exclusive bus line. Joseph Siekiel-Zdzienicki , 1025 Taylor Street, agreed with Ms. Gladden’s remarks about downtown. He recalled Councilor Poling’s remarks admonishing those who expressed concern the route would be a precursor to rezoning. He considered transportation planning to be a zoning plan and easements and public rights-of-way to be zoning tools. Transportation planning predominated over land use planning. MINUTES—Eugene City Council November 8, 2010 Page 4 Regular Meeting